Oklahoma football: Why Kelly Bryant isn’t a good fit for Sooners

Clemson’s Kelly Bryant may be the first blockbuster ‘free agent’ in a new era of college football, but he isn’t a good fit for Oklahoma football.

The Tigers’ quarterback recently announced plans to redshirt what would have been his true senior year and transfer to another program after he lost the starting job to true freshman Trevor Lawrence.

This immediately prompted speculation as to where Lawrence would land, with Oklahoma finding its way into the rumor mill along with several other top programs.

On the surface it makes sense. The Sooners are becoming a quarterback factory under head coach Lincoln RIley with the likes of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray – both transfers. Bryant’s skillset seems to match Murray’s (strong arm, mobility and ability to create when the play breaks down). With Murray all but gone at the end of the season to fulfill his Major League Baseball obligations with the Oakland A’s, there’s a convenient opening that seems to just be waiting for another top-level transfer to come in and take.

But Sooner fans would be wise to hold off on ordering their custom Bryant OU jersey. Here are a few reasons why this wouldn’t be a good fit.

The Sooners have a full quarterback room already

There was much speculation this past summer as to whether the quarterback battle between Murray and Austin Kendall was real, but there’s plenty of reason to believe Kendall is ready to take the job next.

Kendall has been more than adequate in spot duty over his OU career. He’s completed 75 percent of his passes and has a 186.9 passer rating. Riley began recruiting Kendall when he was still the offensive coordinator at East Carolina and has built a relationship with the former four-star high school quarterback.

Kendall didn’t come to Oklahoma to be a backup, but he won’t be the only quarterback currently on the roster vying for the starting job next year. Tanner Mordecai is currently sponging up knowledge as a true freshman, so much that he was named the backup to Murray when Kendall went down with an injury earlier this year. Right behind that duo will be Spencer Rattler, the No. 1 dual threat high school quarterback in the country according to all major recruiting services.

The Sooners appear to be set at the signal-caller position long after Murray departs to become the next Ricky Henderson.

System fit

Yes, transfer quarterbacks have been a big part of Riley’s success so far at Oklahoma. He was lucky enough to inherit a disgruntled Mayfield from Texas Tech. Murray fled the sinking U.S.S Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M to arrive in Norman.

Yet neither of these guys were just plug-and-play success stories. Both Mayfield and Murray came to Oklahoma with a base knowledge of Air Raid system. Both were taught from members of the Mike Leach coaching tree.

Mayfield learned the system from Kliff Kinsgbury at Texas Tech, while Murray took lessons from Jake Spavital, who served as co-offensive coordinator with Kingsbury at Texas A&M before taking over after Kinsbury moved on to become the head coach for the Red Raiders.

Neither offense looked exactly like Riley’s version, but there are similarities in base schemes, terminology and rhythm that gave both Murray and particularly Mayfield (who only had a few months to learn the offense before being named the starter) a head start.

Bryant has navigated a spread offense under offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, a Chad Morris disciple. Though it may look similar to the layman, there are ton of differences between the two offenses. It would take a monumental effort by Bryant to get caught up in short notice, particularly with two guys competing for the job that already know the scheme.

Bryant is a top-level talent. If he had a couple of seasons to come in and learn Riley’s scheme there’s no reason to think he couldn’t become a success story along the lines of Mayfield and Murray, but with only one year of eligibility left he would be wise to go somewhere else.